Enterprise software to manage workflow within a business enterprise is generally well-known in the art. More recently, social networking has become a popular way for people to communicate and keep in touch with one another outside of a business environment. But many of the features and advantages of social networking have not yet been efficiently integrated into a business environment.
For example, social networking services are online, internet-based services in which users can create a profile and link to other users, thereby creating a social network. Through the social networking service, users are able to quickly share information with others in their network. Users are able to have virtual conversations using the social networking service, in which a user posts a comment, and others within the network respond to the comment. In this manner, the exchange of information between members of a social network is extremely convenient.
Enterprise software, on the other hand, is generally used to manage workflow within a business enterprise for facilitating collaboration between employees and for coordinating business processes. Using such systems, employees are able to share documents, access information, review documents, approve projects, manage and track tasks, etc. Such systems are typically accessed through a user interface, such as a web-based application accessed through a browser.
But there is no system known to the inventors of the present invention in which the conversation management associated with social networking is efficiently integrated with the business project management features associated with enterprise software, such that a business system communicating with the enterprise software performs actions based on requests initiated from participants via a virtual conversation taking place outside of the business system. We call this type of conversation a virtual actionable conversation, since the conversation takes place over a network, and allows participants to request actions to be performed in a system external to the conversation. It is desirable to merge the features of social networking with the features of enterprise software to facilitate such virtual actionable conversations.